The present invention relates generally to an image reporting method and system and more particularly to a method and computer-implemented procedure for creating electronic, multimedia reports based on a new reporting paradigm.
Image reporting as currently practiced suffers from a lack of standardization, consistency, accountability, and efficiency. A root cause of these problems is the manner in which reports are generated, beginning with the lack of a standardized report format, particularly in the medical field of radiology.
Radiologists generally review images of a body structure and dictate narrative descriptions of their image findings followed by summary statements. Transcriptionists then transcribe the dictated statements and either print applicable reports or enter such information into a computerized radiology information system (RIS). As a result, the content and format of radiology reports often vary greatly depending on the differing preferences and styles of individual radiologists. This inconsistency among the radiologists"" reporting styles often hinders the correlation of the reported findings with the actual images by the recipients of the reports. Variability in the reporting styles also impedes on-going monitoring of specific findings from different examinations on the same patient, a task that is critical for patient care and time-consuming for radiologists. Further, traditional radiology reporting practices do not support data mining, a powerful tool which is useful in clinical trials, epidemiology studies, and outcomes analyses.
In addition, conventional reporting practices often provide no mechanism to allow the radiologist to account for the effective communication of critical report information to the recipient. Frequently, radiologists mistakenly assume that when a report is approved and sent to a referring medical professional, their responsibility ends. To the contrary, however, radiologists are often held accountable for ensuring that proper action is taken on significant findings and are held liable for malpractice when proper action is not taken.
Clinicians are the typical end-users of reports from radiologists. A major complaint of such clinicians against radiologists and their reporting practices involves point of service. This problem is illustrated by the following scenario: a patient receives emergency room x-rays for an injury during the night; a radiologist interprets the x-ray images the next morning; and, following transcription, a report is finally delivered to the emergency room physician, but typically only after the patient has been treated and released. Clinicians are now demanding that radiologists issue reports immediately after an imaging study has been performed.
Hence, there is a pressing need to provide a reporting system which offers a standardized report format, enables consistency among reports, accounts for effective information flow, provides for quick turnaround of information to the end-user, and supports data mining for public health statistics. In addition, these needs extend beyond the field of radiology, and include other medical fields such as pathology, cardiology, dermatology, as well as other image analysis fields such as satellite imagery and photography.
The present invention relates to a new reporting method and system for reporting the findings of an expert""s analysis of image data and, more specifically, to a computer system and computer-implemented method for reporting an expert""s findings relative to an analysis of image data. The method and system are based on a new reporting paradigm. The paradigm forms the basis of a radiology practice management system that can efficiently and systematically generate radiology reports, facilitate data entry into searchable databases, support clinical trials and outcomes analyses, and expedite hospital billing and collections. One fundamental aspect of this paradigm is that an expert, e.g. a radiologist, identifies a diagnostically significant feature on an image and attaches a location:description code, or in the case of radiology an anatomical:pathological code, to the location of that feature in order to create a finding, or in the case of radiology a diagnostic finding. The anatomical:pathological code includes the anatomical location followed by a pathological description. Optionally, further attributes of that finding, such as dimensional measurements (e.g., length, area, and volume), audio descriptions, 3D rendered snapshots, etc., may be automatically appended to the diagnostic finding as secondary attributes of the diagnostic finding. All of this information is automatically captured in an intuitive workflow scheme transparent to the expert, and stored in a database. The expert may continue to identify additional diagnostically significant features and create diagnostic findings in any order. At the end of the expert""s evaluation of the image(s), the system sorts the diagnostic findings by selected or predetermined categories. In a medical field, these predetermined categories may be anatomical categories. The diagnostic findings are further prioritized by the severity of the diagnosis in order to alert the report recipient, e.g., a clinician. The expert can edit and approve a multimedia report, which may be delivered to an Internet server for immediate access, sent to a database, sent by automated voice, fax or e-mail to the clinician, or any combination thereof. The radiologist can sign the report by electronic or voice signature. The final report presentation may be further customized to satisfy the needs of the clinician.
The reporting system of the present invention is applicable to several other image-based fields including pathology, cardiology, dermatology, satellite imagery, and photography.